Businesses or other entities having a need for volume printing typically use a production printing system capable of printing hundreds of pages per minute. A web of print media, such as paper, is stored the form of a large roll and unraveled as a continuous sheet. During printing, the web is quickly passed underneath printheads which discharge small drops of ink at particular intervals to form pixel images on the web. The web may then be dried and cut to produce a printed product.
Since production printers print high quality images at high speed, it is important that the drying process of the web is quick, effective, and efficient. Advanced dryers may be equipped with an array of heat sources (e.g., radiant energy sources, air knives, etc.) and thermally conductive surfaces (e.g., drum, rollers, etc.) to precisely control heat applied to the web. Due to the large amount of heat produced by the heat components (e.g., in excess of 100 degrees Celsius), typical climate control solutions such as localized direct current (DC) fans are insufficient for distributing and exhausting air inside the dryer. High performance drying applications therefore often use a duct system to supply/remove air and control the environment inside the dryer.
A high performance dryer system may require continual high velocity air used to accelerate the drying process coupled with localized air removal to prevent saturation of the air and condensation of volatiles in unwanted areas. A conventional duct system that enables this type of airflow includes an entangled network of flexible tube ducts that connect the airflow components inside the dryer to an air handling unit placed within the printing system or on the floor of the print shop outside the dryer. Each airflow component inside the dryer may connect with at least one tube duct for supply air and at least one tube duct for return air. Due to the large number of flexible tubes and the size of the air handling equipment, a relatively large distance between the dryer and air handling unit is necessary. This configuration operates inefficiently due to losses in heat transfer and pressure over the large distance, takes up a large amount of floor space in the print shop, and makes it difficult to service the dryer and its components for maintenance.